We Are Not Vulcan

I remember 1964 if for no other reason than Star Trek came to NBC and my passion for science fiction endeared me to this show. I was a trekker before it was popular to be one. It disappointed me as each new season the quality of the special effects declined and battles in space became a battle of words. Then Star Trek was cancelled!

But Mr. Leonard Nimoy brought the concept of Being Vulcan into our vocabulary. More so because like us his character is actually half Vulcan, half human and so he struggles with being a Vulcan, much as we struggle to understand the Vulcan philosophy.

Our lives are guided, or rather misguided by our emotions. Logic rarely enters a decision. It is more important for us to feel good about the things we do. Thus we follow the path of being selfish and basically ignoring the needs of those depending on us. But everything is alight as long as we feel good about our decision.

Vulcan philosophy attempts to rise above selfishness by its doctrine “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”. Thus a Vulcan that is married with children would never leave their family, but stay and protect them as best they can. We humans mostly do the same thing. Our love for our children causes us to sacrifice our selfish desires and provide for them the parent that they need in their developing stages of life. Many a couple have stayed together “for the children’s sake”. This can work provided the couple puts the children’s needs above their own.

We are human and our brains have been wired to be selfish. “What’s in it for me?” is the underlying motivation for us doing things. Also our parents have trained us to seek out ways to entertain ourselves. Besides making “Baby Booms” it is a self-feedback enforcing mechanism that leads to the level of divorce seen throughout our world, and especially here in the Great United States of America (imagine two continents named after one man)!

Take some time and look at your life from a logical point of view. Use a few minutes to meditate on how your actions are affecting others. The realization should come that you have been too selfish! We are like one of three little pigs but we are not Vulcan.